Monday, October 29, 2018

You Can Now Control Your NVIDIA SHIELD TV with Amazon Echo

The NVIDIA SHIELD TV is the Android TV box. It works well for watching your favorite movies, playing some games, and even as a Plex Server. You’ve been able to control the SHIELD TV with your voice thanks to Google Assistant, but NVIDIA is giving users one more option when it comes to voice commands.

Starting today, SHIELD users can control their streaming box with any of the Amazon Echo speakers, thanks to a new Alexa skill from NVIDIA.

If you don’t have a SHIELD TV—or just want a second one—Amazon and Best Buy are bundling an Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) with any SHIELD TV bought between now and November 10th. If you already have a SHIELD TV, you can get a discount on an Echo Dot (3rd Gen) as part of the SHIELD Rewards program.

How do you link Alexa to your SHIELD TV?

Start by downloading the NVIDIA SHIELD TV Alexa skill. You’ll link your SHIELD TV to Alexa in the Alexa smartphone app by signing in with the same NVIDIA account that you signed into on the SHIELD.

Once that’s done, just select the SHIELD TV and Echo speakers you want to link together. That’s it!

What can you do with Alexa?

Once you get the NVIDIA SHIELD TV skill installed, you’ll be able to power your SHIELD on and off, control volume, open apps, control playback, and open the device settings.

More features

If you like other parts of Amazon’s ecosystem, there’s more great news: the Prime Video app on SHIELD TV now supports Dolby Atmos passthrough. Now, you can hear Jack Ryan’s world all around you if you have a fancy speaker array.